Mike Solana

On Jan 17, the day the masking ordinance went into effect, the # of new cases/deaths declined, the first decline in quite some time. This continued until the epidemic faded, a signal that the mask ordinance had helped wipe out the Spanish Flu in San Francisco

Of course, the SF Public Health Officer -- the 1919 version of Dr. Fauci, got no credit for the decline in influenza cases. People continued to gripe about the masking even after the pandemic had been stalled by it

No one seemed to credit masking for the success of blunting the Spanish Flu in San Francisco -- because, well, the crisis faded due to its success "Rarely has the evidence in support of a scientific hypothesis been more overwhelming and more deceiving," writes historian Crosby

Ultimately San Francisco was one of the American cities hardest hit by the Spanish Flu. 673 per 100,000 people died during the pandemic due to influenza and pneumonia, per U of Michigan. 50K cases total and 3,500 were killed, per Crosby.

The 1918/1919 protests against mask wearing and other public health measures have parallels to today We learn through this episode that various groups of Americans have been pushing back against public health measures for more than a hundred years -- and for similar reasons!!

In learning about the Anti-Mask League of 1919, we see many of the same human elements as today: a portion of the population resistant to the measures; a business community crying out for relief; a second wave after an initial loosening; threats to public health officials

This is essentially a report that I pieced together by reading sources after getting curious about the 1919 Anti-Mask League. Any mistakes are my own. I started by drafting a few tweets and then spent an hour and a half researching it last night. One thing led to another...